Steve Lichtenstein

Brooklyn’s Distressing Development Back in the honeymoon phase of Sean Marks’ tenure as General Manager, the Nets built a reputation as a development factory.

New post: Marks & the #Nets have come a long way down from when the program was lauded as a development factory. Link: open.substack.com/pub/stevelic...

Every year but one since 2012.

Underachieving Devils Have Not Indicated They’re Ready To Deploy Tank One would figure that a team bogged down by a five-game losing streak and desperate for a win would play it safe when nursing a 2-0 lead in St.

To tank or not to tank, that is the question facing the #NJDevils brass this week, since they have yet to start the process. Link:
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Thomas And The Suspension Of Belief In Cam Thomas’ professional debut after getting selected with the No.

New post on what Thomas got right & wrong in his shot at the #Nets. Link:
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Impotent Devils Know How To Mute A Celebration The Dilemma That Will Accompany Luke Hughes’ Return

The #NJDevils turned a raucous celebration into another dud. Also, who comes out when Luke Hughes returns this weekend? Link:
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Like It Or Not, The Nets Tank Is Proceeding Organically A Rotation Suggestion

The only people more miserable than #Nets HC Fernandez are those who won't be satisfied unless BKN goes 0-25 down the stretch. Link:
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The Jets And The Battle Between Projection Versus Production It’s NFL Combine week, the official start of the annual debate within Draft war rooms between projection versus production.

New post on how the #Jets should approach the decision on their No. 2 overall pick at April's #NFLDraft (assuming they don't trade it). Link:
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Should The Nets Shut Down Porter? Over the first half of the season, Michael Porter Jr.

Porter's recent struggles could be injury related. What should the #Nets do in the wake of Silver's leaked admonishments to GMs over the #NBA's tanking plague? Link:
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Hughes Goal Exorcises Demons To get over the misery from the wastes of energy from my irrational fandom of lost cause sports teams like the Nets, Jets, and Devils, I focus on the reality that there is always another game, another...

New post on what Hughes' golden goal meant to #USAHockey (& me). D'oh, Canada! Link:
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U.S./Canada Gold Medal Game Preview The matchup on Sunday for the men’s hockey gold medal game that NBC desired—the U.S.

#USAHockey gets another shot at their nemesis from the north--here's some things to watch in what should be an epic #Olympics hockey gold medal game. Link:
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Injuries Scar A Wonderful Olympic Hockey Tournament Team USA Coach Lucks Out

What a day of hockey. Hope you got to enjoy it while you can. Link: #USAHockey
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Team USA Will Rue Burying Hughes As expected, Team USA rolled through its pool, winning all three contests by a cumulative 16-5 score.

As the #OlympicsHockey games get faster in the knockout rounds, #USAHockey shouldn't keep its speeding bullet in its proverbial holster. Link: #NJDevils
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Common Ground For Nets Stretch Run When the Nets walked off the Barclays Center court on Wednesday night with a “What just happened?” look on their collective faces following a 115-110 choke job to a makeshift Indiana squad, a certain ...

In this country’s waning spirit of bipartisan cooperation, I offer some areas where all sides in the #Nets fandom tanking debate can come together in their rooting interests. Link:
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Silver Needs To Be Confronted On What Tanking Has Become: Game Fixing For no good reason, I caught the end of Monday night’s Jazz/Heat contest.

Even the word “tanking” makes what's transpiring around the #NBA sound like a toddler purposely knocking over a tower of blocks. No harm, no foul. Let’s start by calling it what it is. These teams are fixing games. Link: #Nets
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Will Team USA Finally Travel Well This Olympics? The United States has not medaled in a men’s Olympic hockey tournament outside of North America since 1972, its only one in the last 70 years.

A #TeamUSA Olympic hockey preview in new post at:
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Nets Among Many Tankers Beginning Long Slog To Finish Line While I was watching the Nets get the snot beat out of them by the Magic on Thursday night, my television emitted a loud bang and went blank.

30 #NBA teams, at least 9 of which are tanking, the #Nets among them. I think my TV was trying to tell me, "No mas." The league ought to listen. Link:
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Nets’ Deadline Moves Emit A Whimper The popular take from NBA pundits from last offseason through Thursday’s Trade Deadline was that “all roads go through Brooklyn”, meaning that the Nets had the most salary cap space and the flexibilit...

My initial read on the #Nets trade deadline: It’s hard to claim they got any better, currently or in the future, from these moves. Link:
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I wouldn’t bet on it.

Drowning Devils Make A Move In Same Direction The Signal Sent If Hughes Doesn’t Skip Olympics

My 1,000th post for #substack since August 2021 is on the #NJDevils: If Fitzgerald figures he might soon be on his way out for the franchise’s nearly annual underachievement, he was going to go out with his “hard-to-play-against” guns a blazing. Link:
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Nets And Thomas Destined For Breakup, One Way Or Another When the Nets pulled away and closed out host Utah in Friday night’s fourth quarter for a 109-99 victory, their final 18 points were scored by rookie first-round picks Egor Demin, Nolan Traore, and Da...

With 4 days left until the #NBAtradeDeadline, some thoughts on what could happen with the Nets' polarizing Thomas. Link:
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Devils Aren’t Really As Close As Keefe Claims In Sheldon Keefe’s delusional mind, the Devils would be atop the Eastern Conference instead of residing in 15th place this season if not for a break here or there.

The number of times where #NJDevils HC Keefe has stood in front of the media after a loss and claimed his club was “right there” has to be in double digits. Reality check: They're not that close at all. Link:
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Nets’ Double Teams Unlocking Triple Threats With a little under four minutes remaining in the third quarter of Thursday night’s 107-103 Nets loss in Denver, Brooklyn’s borderline backup guard Tyrese Martin left his man to double team the Nugget...

New post on a puzzling #Nets defensive strategy. Link:
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Lou won his first Cup after many years and many coaches. I agree on your point of what will probably happen, but my point is that Fitz shouldn’t keep Keefe because he thinks that will save his job.

Lou changed coaches as often as his ties. If a new coach leads a resurgence, the GM will look smart. Doing nothing won’t (or shouldn’t) save Fitz if team falls short.

Devils Need To Hear A New Voice Behind Bench It took Devils General Manager Tom Fitzgerald the proverbial forever and a day to get rid of the team’s anvil on the ice and, probably more importantly, on its salary cap sheet.

Tom "Too Late" Fitzgerald moves out anvil on ice (not to mention on salary cap sheet); when will he address the one behind the #NJDevils' bench? Link:
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Demin’s Stellar Shooting For Lowly Nets Earning League-Wide Respect Fernandez’s Costly Tactics

New post on #Nets rookie Demin's good day and Fernandez's lousy week. Link:
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The Jets Could Have Just Fired Glenn Having just finished the two-part HBO documentary on Mel Brooks, I found one of his famous catchphrases applicable to the proceedings within the Jets’ coaching staff: “It’s good to be the King.”

The #Jets are doing almost everything an organization does after firing a HC…without firing their HC. Link:
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Devils’ Notes From Western Canada Trip The Devils missed an opportunity to fly home (assuming they can get here through the storm) from their four-game road trip on a high note when they dropped a 4-2 decision at slumping Seattle on Sunday...

New post on my takeaways from the #NJDevils' 4-game road trip. Link:
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Darnold Deserves No Ill Will From Jets Fans As someone who has grown fed up with the utter ineptitude of the Jets, I am approaching Sunday’s NFL Conference Championship Games with the utmost apathy.

It's so easy to rag on the #Jets, even when their decisions weren't controversial at the time. Link:
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Nets Fernandez Could Be Facing Futility Battle In the 2004 film “Miracle” about the 1980 U.S.

New post on the #Nets ugly bloodbath at MSG. Link:
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